1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to web technologies and more specifically to signing off from multiple domains signed-on using approaches such as single sign-on (SSO).
2. Related Art
A domain contains resources (web pages, files, applications, services, etc.), which are accessible at a corresponding unique domain name. Examples of domains include ibm.com, oracle.com, microsoft.com, etc. Such domains (“parent domains”) often contain lower level domains, which are referred to as sub-domains. For example, yahoo.com is referred to as a parent domain for the sub-domains finance.yahoo.com, sports.yahoo.com (or www.yahoo.com/sports), etc. The parent domains and sub-domains are collectively referred to as domains.
In general, each domain exercises at least some level of administrative autonomy (as to who can access resources and under what conditions) to require password type authentication before providing access to at least the protected resources (contrasted with public resources, which do not require authentication for access). Each reference to resource hereafter refers to protected resources unless expressly stated otherwise. Though multiple domains can be implemented using same server systems in theory, often different domains are implemented using corresponding disparate server systems for reasons such as administrative convenience and performance.
Single sign-on (SSO) facility is often provided across multiple domains, typically for the convenience of users. SSO refers to an authentication feature where a single authentication permits the same user from the same/single client/user system, to thereafter access resources in multiple domains. Without the single sign-on feature, the user may be required to provide the authentication information repeatedly for each of the domains, before access to corresponding resources is provided.
Users are generally required to sign off from domains generally when resources are no longer required to be accessed. Signing off (also referred to as logging out) of a domain accordingly implies that the user is no longer able to access resources without a subsequent authentication. Several aspects of the present invention enable convenient signing off from multiple domains signed-on using approaches such as SSO.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.